David Gilkey

David Gilkey is a staff photographer and video editor for NPR, covering both national and international news. He has produced award-winning photo essays, videos and multimedia presentations for NPR.org, as well as radio reports for NPR.

As one of the first unilateral journalists to move into Afghanistan and the first to cross the border into Iraq while embedded with the U.S. Army, Gilkey has covered the war on terrorism since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. In that time, he has made numerous trips back to both countries most recently covering U.S. operations in southern Afghanistan.

In 2009, Gilkey covered the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. The next year he made numerous trips to Haiti to cover the devastating earthquake that hit the island nation in January. His work in Haiti earned Gilkey two 2011 Investigative Reporters & Editors awards. Gilkey documented the fall of apartheid in South Africa, famine and conflict in Somalia, tribal warfare in Rwanda and the war in the Balkans.

Throughout his career, Gilkey has received numerous awards from both national and international photo competitions. In 2011, Gilkey was named Still Photographer of the Year by the White House Photographers Association (WHPA). In addition he's earned 36 distinctions from the WHPA since 2009, including nine first place awards.

Gilkey's contribution to the NPR Investigation "Brain Wars: How the Military is Failing the Wounded" was recognized by a 2010 George Polk Award. That series was also honored with Society for News Design's 2011 Award of Excellence and a 2011 Dart Award for Excellence in Coverage.

He received a 2007 national Emmy award for a video series "Band of Brothers" about Michigan Marines in Iraq. In 2004, he was named Michigan "Photographer of the Year" by the Michigan Press Photographers Association.

Gilkey studied journalism at Oregon State University. His first job was at the Boulder (CO) Daily Camera, where he handled local assignments for the paper and overseas assignments for Knight Ridder. He later joined the Detroit Free Press where he worked until 2007.

NPR photographer David Gilkey has photographed in extreme situations — from the surge in Afghanistan, to bombings in Gaza, to the tsunami in Japan, but he was shocked at what he saw in the village of Barangay 68 in Tacloban City, Philippines.

Nothing could have prepared me for what I was going to find when I arrived.

"Barangay," loosely translated, means a neighborhood or village and Barangay 68 is just one of the tiny hamlets that make up greater Tacloban City in the central Philippines. The village was devastated by Typhoon Haiyan.